The present invention relates to a method of producing minced fish meat.
In producing ground or mashed fish meat as a material for sausage, boiled fish plate, etc., there has been used a method in which a use is made of a fish meat collecting means comprising a hollow fish meat collecting roll having a number of fish meat collecting holes in its peripheral wall and pressed against the upper face of a circulating endless rubber belt. The fish meat collecting roll is rotated in synchronism with the running speed of the endless rubber belt and fish meat or flesh (fillet) pieces are supplied onto the endless rubber belt to press the fish meat pieces against the fish meat collecting roll to therely crush the fish meat pieces and collect the crushed eatable portion of the fish meat pieces (hereinafter referred to as minced fish meat) into the roll through the fish meat collecting holes of the roll for obtaining the mashed fish meat.
With such method, fishes having soft meat, such as mackerel and sardine, may be processed satisfactorily, but it was difficult to collect fish meat from fishes having hard meat, such as flatfishes because such hard meat does not well intrude or encroach into the fish meat collecting roll when fish bodies are pressed between the roll and the rubber belt. Furthermore, it is difficult to fillet the flatfishes by means of a filletting machine due to their shape. Thus, it was quite difficult to produce the minced fish meat from fishes having hard meat, such as flatfishes.
Still further, the fishes as can be processed by said previously known method are not constantly supplied through the year due to their fishery seasons and variations of haul. Thus, it is highly desired to produce minced fish meat which may be used for producing mashed fish meat from fishes which can be constantly supplied through the year, such as flatfishes.